


The Voice

by Akira14



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 05:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9864545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akira14/pseuds/Akira14
Summary: Once upon a time, in a faraway magical land, there was a prince of very few words.So little did he speak, that his parents were sure he had been cursed. Many, amongst doctors and wizards alike, had tried to heal him but all to no avail.A quest was needed to find the Prince's voice and it had to start where it has been stolen: in the Fairy Kingdom.





	

**Author's Note:**

> **COWT7 prompts: danger (pericolo)**

Once upon a time, in a faraway magical land, there was a prince of very few words.  
So little did he speak, that his parents were sure he had been cursed. Many, amongst doctors and wizards alike, had tried to heal him but all to no avail.

Prince Otabek’s voice was only heard on the battlefields, where he engaged in brief talks with his generals to design a winning strategy – not always the best one, as proved by the recent defeat against King Leroy - before he was off to lead his men into battle. Men who had been fighting by his side for years, who could understand just from a raised eyebrow or a pointed glare what their Prince needed from them. Men who were aware that a smile and a hand on their shoulder meant that Otabek couldn’t be more proud of their bravery and valor.  
As soon as he stepped into the Castle, however, he seemed unable to utter a single word. Crowds gathered around him, waiting for a solemn speech from their hero, whenever he came back. Yet, he barely acknowledged them, dismissively waving a hand and then locking himself into the library until duty called and some other evil menace needed to be vanquished with his mighty sword.  
Undoubtedly, he was a great knight. His apparent coldness and reticence, however, made him quite unfit to be the next ruler.

“Choose one of my sisters, I don’t mind. ” He dared to write to his father, as a post scriptum on one of his updates from the battlefield. 

The King, however, refused to take the easy way out. His beloved daughters had the right to be free and travel around the world, he wouldn’t ask them to sacrifice their lives for the realm just because he didn’t try hard enough to free his precious son from the vicious spell that had been cast upon him.  
For long he had been sure that Beka had always been tight-lipped, but then he started to recall the truth: his little boy used to talk a lot more before he got lost in the woods. Back then, Beka swore that he wandered aimlessly for hours, alone, until a boy with the eyes of a soldier showed him the way back home.  
There was no reason to think his memory had been tampered with, that he since he hadn’t a scratch on him and the gold coins he had in his satchel had not been stolen. 

Still… Old tales spoke of fairies frolicking around the ancient trees, unforgiving of any intruder that might mistakenly stumble into their heavily guarded kingdom.  
What if Yuri Plisetsky, the kid Beka claims to have met but has no record of his existence whatsoever, is a fairy himself?  
What if he had stolen most of his voice, as a payback for the service he had provided by leading him out of the woods unscathed?  
There was no harm in asking the men who swore loyalty to the Crown to go look for him, was there? Having the fairy brought before him might turn out to be a bit more troublesome, but it certainly could be done. It was preferable not to face him in the forest where he could draw far too much power from the nature around him.  
No need to involve his son in such a perilous endeavor, even though he was the only one amongst them that knew what Plisetsky looked like. They could sure manage to find him anyway.

What they could not do, however, was to keep a secret from Otabek. He immediately sensed that there was something going on behind his back. He was no fool, so he knew that if his father hadn't discussed the matter with him it could only mean that it either involved either an arranged marriage - a topic that could be avoided until his parents sealed a convenient deal with a former enemy - or the longstanding grudge the King had against fairies.  
'It's all my fault, I should have tried harder.' He thought as he approached the knights stealthily preparing for their next mission. 'I should have talked, even when I had nothing to say. I should have been more approachable, mingle with people I despise befriend the most powerful amongst them. If only I spent my days boasting, like JJ does, none of us would be here ' Never had he thought that he would envy such an obnoxious man, but there he was. He doubted that seeing Yuri again would change anything, but he refused to let the boy pay for a crime that he didn’t commit. 

“Take me with you.” He said, with a voice that left no room for arguments. It was either defying the King’s orders or his own, but they were well aware that he would rather die than have them punished for insubordination when he had been the one instigating it. He wanted to say more, to surprise them with the longest speech he ever delivered in his life. Something along the lines of ‘I am taking full responsibility for my actions and for what I am asking you to do: I am well aware that my father must have ordered you to leave me out of this, to keep me in the dark, but if that was his wish… Well, he should have sent you while I was away, fighting another battle and unable to join you...’ but no sound came out of his lips and his throat felt so tight that it was hard to breath, for a second. “Please, don’t fight me on this.” He managed to say, instead, fingers drumming unconsciously on the hilt of his sword.  
The knights hesitated, for one moment. A single instant that seemed interminable to Otabek. 

“We won’t.” Emil, his second in command, reassured him.  
“We don’t stand a chance against you, anyway, do we? And believe me, I would be the last one to stand between a young man and his destiny… ” Added one of his mightiest knights with a penchant for tragic love stories. “... you were there when Anya left me, how could I not right beside you as you go look for your long lost lov-hey! What was that? You nearly broke my foot, Misha! Just because he’s younger than us it doesn’t mean that our Prince is a stranger to the call of the highest and most noble sentiment of all. Am I right, your Highness?”  
“I have no idea what you are talking about, Popovich.” He sighed, and raised an eyebrow in annoyance.  
“Alright, alright.” Georgi conceded, ignoring Michele’s smug smile. “ Someone is in a hurry to find his fairy friend. Better not make him wait.” 

Otabek didn’t even bother to care at Georgi or argue with a statement that wasn’t so far from the truth.  
Yuri must have grown so much since he last saw him, becoming a fearsome warrior who could have the whole world at his feet after his very first military campaign. Fairies never caused any trouble – they actually preferred people to believe they didn’t exist – because they didn’t think they had the power to win against those damn humans and the warlock. With Yuri, however, that could change.  
With Yuri, everything could change.  
Maybe he was overestimating the guy, alright? But who wouldn’t start daydreaming about the most extraordinary creature they came across in their life? Who wouldn’t be looking forward to meet them again?  
Very few, for sure.

The ride to the woods was spent in silence, as he tried to remember something useful about that fateful day. Something a bit more handy than merciless emerald eyes, a lithe body and razor sharp wings.  
His head, though, didn’t seem too keen on cooperating: his usually sharp mind is stuck on reminding him that had been too scared to be aware of his surroundings and that it was Yuri who found him and approached him, not the other way around. Indeed, his brain could offer little help in retrieving a distant hazy memory. Rather than relying on that, then, his best bet was to follow the advice he gathered from the countless books he read.  
Go further than you feel comfortable and then a little more, they said.  
Look for the brightest flowers in summer and spring; look for a carpet of the shiniest red and yellow leaves in autumn… If it’s winter, well, one can try to spot them on the frozen ponds: they love to ice-skate and show off their innate grace to the awestruck nymphs and dyads.  
Getting there took several hours, riding as fast as they possibly could – nonstop. It seemed impossible that they covered such a massive distance in less than a day, on foot, all those years ago. Magic must have been involved, he now realizes… and it makes him feel even more grateful to Yuri. Exposing himself like that, when he could have pretended to be just a human boy… it had been dangerous, and yet he didn’t care.  
The little gifts Otabek has with him can hardly repay him, but he hopes they will welcomed and appreciated nonetheless. 

“Should we stop here, make camp, and wait until tomorrow, Your Highness?” Emil asked, looking at the sky. Otabek had hardly noticed that the sun was almost setting, too absorbed in reaching the most secluded pond in the forest.  
“I guess it woul- ”  
“Oi! Are you hags still out there, hiding behind trees? Get lost!” There he was, Yuri Plisetsky, yelling and snarling at whoever dared to spy on him. He hadn’t stopped skating, though. Or looking so exquisite and harmonious while his blades cut through the ice that Otabek felt his heart swell. Magnificent, that’s what he was.  
“You heard me? Get lost of show yourselves. Quit lurking around like creepy weirdos, damn!” He reiterated, persuading Otabek to get off his horse and walk to the edge of the pond.  
“Ah-ha! I knew you were there you little…” Yuri sneered, as he skated towards the prince. “Wait, you ain’t a nymph. Or a dyad. Or a centaur. Who the fuck are you?” He asked, baring his teeth and growling at the guy with the ridiculous haircut that was now standing right in front of him.

Was he deaf? Mute? Both? He might be trying – successfully, damn! – to rile him up, goading him into punching his expressionless face so that he can say that he didn’t mean to kill Yuri but that he was just fearing for his life after the fairy lashed out at him for no apparent reason and his self-preservation instincts went a bit over the top. No way Yuri was gonna fall for this! He was hot headed but definitely not stupid!  
If anything, _he_ could be the one framing the man for trespassing. All that he needed to do was to keep the stranger here until his message, now carried by the gentle breeze, got to the King.  
‘Humans are amongst us, Gramps.’ It said. ‘One of them dared to approach me. Come and seize him.’ Yeah, this weird and unresponsive dude was as good as dead.

“Hey, I’m talking to you! Speak when I ask you to!” He tried again, unable to hold back his annoyance at the man’s unresponsiveness. “You clearly don’t know who- ”  
“You are Yuri Plisetsky and, just like me, you are the next in line for the throne. Like me, you are a warrior and you have survived in this world fighting tooth and nails. I’ve heard the rumors, I have my sources inside this forest and the fact that you are here in front of me instead being in King Leroy’s cells is a testament to that.”  
“How…” How did he know so much about him, including the reason why Gramps was forced to toughen up the punishment for showing up into their lands uninvited.

Was he aware of that, actually? Did he know you can’t get away with a warning anymore? It didn’t matter if you swore never to set a foot again in the forest. It wasn’t possible to strike up a deal by offering your first born anymore, though some – like the detestable yet unfairly powerful and influential Viktor Nikiforov – might appreciate the gesture and persuade the King to commute your death sentence into a spell that turned you into an ice statue for a couple of years or something. That’s what he did for the pig, the mortal he fell in love with. Nobody knew about what happened after that, only that the ice statue was stolen and that Viktor disappeared for months as well… and then came back like nothing happened and had assured Nikolai that Yuuri Katsuki had been taken care of.  
Not that it bothered Yuri one bit, having no idea about katsudon’s fate and all that. What was bothering him, right now, was that he didn’t know a single thing about the knight. Not even his name, and he was getting quite tired of having to refer to him as ‘the guy’, ‘the man’ or ‘the stranger’.

“Unlike me, you clearly haven’t treasured our meeting. That’s okay. I guess I wasn’t that memorable, as a kid. I’m Alt-”  
“Wa-wait. We met before?” He gave Gramps, Yakov and Lilia shit all the time about their inability to remember a face and yet he failed to recognize his very first friend. “You aren’t… You can’t be…”  
He couldn’t be _that_ boy, the same boy who looked at him like he hung the moon or something, who never made fun of his delicate features and high pitched voice and listened to him boasting about his prowess and power with a smile on his lips.  
He couldn’t be the one that he mourned for months, unable to understand why he wasn’t allowed to keep him. He almost hated his grandfather a bit for that, for taking ‘Beks’ away. Didn’t speak him for two whole days.  
‘He doesn’t belong here, Yurotcka. I’ll let you escort him out of the woods.’ He said, and then asked Yakov to make sure the human wouldn’t go around spilling their secrets. Little did know that there weren’t any to keep, that their enemies – who wanted them dead by the hands of the warlocks, so that they would have an excuse to start a war and reclaim the world that had been stolen from them – were within the forest and not outside.  
For months he persuaded himself that his grandpa simply mean that Yakov had to erase his memory. Years later, when Lilia taught him that memory spells were highly unreliable as means to keep a secret, that you couldn’t erase everything and that something always came back to the surfaces… he understood that his friend hadn’t made it back alive to the castle. All because Yuri had been to reckless and eager, going as far as to approach that scared, awkward but sweet, little boy himself…

So yeah, it couldn’t be _him_.  
Unless he was dealing with a zombie, but he smelled too nice – his complexion was to dark, his skin too hot, his heart beat too loud and his voice too soft and comforting – to be one.  
A twin. It had to be a twin, though his friend never mentioned having one. They didn’t spend that much, maybe he hadn’t had an opportunity to give out that specific information about himself. A twin who was there to avenge him.

“Beks?” He found himself saying. In spite of all his reasoning, he couldn’t help but hope that he had been spared, that he had found his way back to him.”  
“That’s me, Yuri. I’m here to thank you.” Thank him? For what? For putting his life in danger again? If only he knew… Well, he wouldn’t know soon enough. “I brought some gifts as well. It’s not much but…”  
He opened his satchel and took out a beautiful dark cloak with a tiger embroidered on it. Folded into the cloak, packed into a smaller bag, there were two pirotskis. Somehow, probably thanks to the warlock who had been riding with him, they were still warm. Yuri didn’t even to take a bite to know they were katsudon pirotzkis.  
“It is you, then… YOU FOOL! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE? WHO EVEN INVITED YOU? YOU ARE NOT WELCOME AROUND THIS WOODS, YOU SHOULDN’T…” He never shouted so angrily at Otabek before, but he just couldn’t believe that he had come all this way, putting himself in harm’s way again, merely to express gratitude to someone who didn’t deserve in the slightest.  
“I am sorry if I inconvenienced you, Your Highness.” Otabek muttered, frowning. “I thought we were friends, but I now realize it was naïve of me to believe so.”  
“Well, yeah, it fucking was.” _‘No, it wasn’t and we both know it. Take a cue, Beks. I’m trying to patch things up here.’_ “So get out of my face and stay gone, you- DUCK!” Yuri yelled, shoving him aside so that he wouldn’t be hit by the spells blasted all around them.  
“RUN!” Otabek bellowed to his men as well, who didn’t stand a chance against the highly skilled fairies. However, they refused to disperse and waited for him and Yuri to reach them.  
“I am afraid we’ll have to disobey your orders for once, Sir.” Michele hissed, quite offended to have been asked to break his oath as a royal guard. “I wouldn’t be able to face Sara anymore if I acted so selfishly and spinelessly. **You** run.”  
“We swore to protect you and we will. No matter the price.” Emil agreed, nodding.  
“It’d be an honor to die for you.” Georgi concurred, tears shining in his eyes at the thought of dying so prematurely, when he was still in his prime and had yet to find his one true love. 

Otabek was conflicted, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving them behind but he knew that being killed in _this_ battle – when he wasn’t even supposed to be with them – would likely mean that they would be hanged for high treason when they got back. Then he felt someone grabbing his arm and leading him to his horse, only to stop abruptly. Yuri seemed unsure of what to do next, as Otabek got up on his horse. Should he stay and try to make his grandfather believe that his call for help was nothing more than a prank, tell him a lie and pretending he had invited the humans because he felt a bit too lonely and bored today? Should he really do that and prove to him that he is unfit to rule their kingdom? Perhaps not. It might be better to…  
“So, do you want me to give you a ride out of here or not?” Otabek asked, snapping him out his thoughts.  
“Shut up and ride.” He sneered, jumping on the saddle and putting his arms around Otabek’s waist.


End file.
